Failed at Brayflox - or Why I Suck at FFXIV

[Deroth]

I like Brayflox, probably ran it more than any other dungeon at this point across every class but Monk so far (have all but 2 pieces of the gear too.) Only dislike Qarn because of the damn bees.

Cutter's Cry is annoying because everybody actually needs to do what they're supposed instead of being stuck on stupid and the loot tables are insulting to the players.

[annegoesrawr]

Brayflox was a horror the first time I ran it as WHM. DPS died because he was kiting adds and wouldn't stop for me to heal. He got so angry he ragequit, and while waiting for another DPS to queue in, the Tank quit - WE HAD NOT EVEN REACHED THE FIRST BOSS. Of course, I was blamed. The second time I ran it, it was fine, I just can never get over how annoying Aiatar is. BEST ESUNA'S NA! Not really....but I am amped to start doing other dungeons soon.

[Bixby]

I think it's interesting how everybody has that one dungeon where they start to have real trouble, where dungeons really "start." I've heard Haukke, Brayflox, Qarn, CC...

Every one of them gives you a new lesson or three. Haukke teaches you about patrols, hopefully how to stun, and that you actually need your whole party for some bosses. Brayflox teaches you trash can actually kill you, and bosses are really serious from now on. Qarn teaches you that there are all kinds of wacky mechanics possible, and how to assign tasks (or understand assigned tasks if someone else is doing the explaining). CC teaches you what an add wave really looks like, and how to move right now, even without a red marker. Stone Vigil teaches you about very careful pulling and spatial awareness, and so on.

[Seezur_Undies]

Ok, So i am going to explain my experience as a tank. First, I main as a WHM healer, and i was always one of those healers didn't understand what the big deal was about tanking, and just assumed that everytime i pulled agro from a tank, I was doing something wrong. I have been told that Braflox Longstop makes and breaks tanks and healers, if after you run that and you still want to tank or heal, then you picked the right role. After getting my WHM to 50 i decided to see what was so hard about tanking, so i started Gladiator. Boy did i figure out what the big deal is. Now this isnt a PLD is better than WAR debate, but i feel PLD is easier for me to play with how i like to play, and have tried warrior tanking and will admit, if i was healing me as a warrior tank, i would have been swearing at the screen, but thats another story. I learned fast in both healing and tanking is that gear is everything while leveling. Granted they give you alot of gear as your questing, but not everything, and not everything is at the same level.

That would be my first piece of advice. keep your gear upgraded. Now you say you dont have tons of gil to be upgrading your gear all the time, and you want to hone your tanking skills? Look at this: Dungeon Loot List find the gear for you level and work towards updating everytime you can. Sounds tedious, but really, if you want to be a great tanks, your skills only come to play in instances/dungeons so it makes the best sense. Prepare for wipes, focus on finding all the chests cause you never know, that one chest that "always drops that *%&$#@ potion" might drop something you need. Also a side note if you didnt already know, if you get a gear upgrade, you can equip it immediately so it will make your run a little smoother. Thats what worked for me, might not work for everyone, but i hope something out if this tl;dr post helped a little

... Only dislike Qarn because of the damn bees.....

Tip: if you have a summoner in your party, have him use titan (or Topaz) in steady, when you get to the trash bees (not the ones at the first boss) sick titan on the bee as the tank attacks the first mob, when the bee does final sting, its to titan, not your tank and a quick swiftcast/summon and he's back. Easier than a SC/raise on your tank and having raise sickness

[TheFluffyCat]

What is worse, when I ask for suggestions, I get answers like "Do the same thing you've been doing for the first 25 hours you played the game" (What? 25 hours to get to lvl 39? I've been playing when work allows since the game came out - conclusion - I must suck).

This. Whenever I hear someone say they leveled from 1-30 in a few days, my thought process goes:

"Wait, what?? Who are you, level-master, and how is that possible?!"
"...Maybe they have no life and play for 20 hours a day...?"
"...or maybe they used a leveling bot or other cheating mechanism somehow...?"
"...But still, what?? How is that even possible?!"

I've decided they are either exaggerating hardcore, forgot how long it actually took, or I'm the slowest player on the planet.

if they are talking to you in the language you used in the OP, I'd tell them once to calm down and that you're learning. If they keep it up, just leave. It is a game, and there is no call for insults or abuse (which is bannable, btw, on their part). Plus, to be quite frank, the DD especially have long queues...you have none. If they are aggressive and rude to you, then maybe they haven't waited in their DD queue long enough

As a mostly-DPS player, I agree with this 100% -- I'd never do anything to intentionally tick off the tank or healer & have to wait again! haha

I think tanks have the hardest job, and therefore deserve a LOT of respect, but regardless of role, no one has to put up with jerks. Don't forget you can also block people (in addition to reporting them to SE, as Mirielle mentions) -- if they are over-the-top nasty & selfish, block them so you don't have to put up with them in the DF ever again. Win-win!

The first party I ran with just wanted to charge the Inferno Drake, die, charge the Inferno Drake, die, etc. etc. Without any exaggeration, we must've died 20 times. That's when people started leaving. I managed to complete it on the second run, but people were dying all over the place.

I wish I had been in a party that would hang around that long! I've only had people leave once -- my first run through Haukke -- but when they did, it was after only 2 wipes, and they left with accusations of how I dragged down the party, wasted everyone's time, and apparently wanted to just be carried through it. Afterwards, I was so hurt (and terrified that they were right about me) that I've honestly been avoiding it since. I'm going to try to find a FC with other newbies so I can team up with a group who will all be terrible together for a while

[lebirath]

hi, just wanted to tell u a few tips (from a mage point if view and a player like u of 30 years but 1st MMO - i dint count WKC or MH)
1. dont take insults, like someone mention if they cant get that is a game and cant help u learn without being offesive, they can leave or u can) EVERY SINGLE role is important, almost no dgn can get pass without everyone doing their part. i had a tank behave like the king if the world, it was 3 of us so we ask him to calm down and he started with insults, we took pics for the rest if the dgn. Is a game suppose to be fun, dont let anyone transform it into a stressful situation. On the same line when u run into smn that is no following ur style, explain it, even though the tank has x job it is done different.
2. try to never go into the next lvl dgn if u didnt properly loot the preview one. I did Haukken 15times (i have the worst drop rate.. lol)
3. when u go in, state that u r learning/praticing, that advice is welcome. Some might leave, but some would stay and guve u tips. e.g i did haukken so many times tgat when run into a tank that was new to dgn and stated this, i would guve him tips on whi to target 1st and where to position. For what i have seen flix is actualky use as one if the "dgn practice"
4. DONT be afraid of wipes and try to find a friendly group that woukd help you. Some say garuda was their 1st insane, we wipe 6times ;1st wtm, tank and one dps) till we came with a plan and did it.
5. if u end up with a friendly healer, u can tell him/her that if u r not noticing enemies in her, to run to you and call ur attetion. THAT said i can compremised the healing if wtm dont timed well
6. as said.. ALWAYS avoid what u can; some aoe u might take w upgrade gear (eg u r doing a lower lvl) but avoidinf never hurts

hope u enjoy the game and dont get discourage by ppl being unpolite

[MysticNeko]

Ok I glanced through these posts and didn't see anyone mention this tip and who knows, maybe you probably already know but... alternate your enmity building attacks among the enemies. I haven't played to much mrd but the 20 or so levels I have played I found that if I focus my attacks on target 2 and drop my enmity building attacks on mark 1 (the one the DDs should be attacking) I was keeping hate just fine. Just drop an overpower once in a while and drop flash in emergency situations (or when there's slept mobs) I probably shouldn't be giving advice for how to tank with mrd since I'm a pld tank but that's how I was keeping hate on mrd and its worked so far.

Alternatively as the gld/pld I mark 1 if there's 2 mobs and mark 2 if there's 3 mobs. (on the rare occasion there are 4 mobs i mark 3 then) I then focus on mark 1, use first attack, switch targets to mark 2 (assuming its not asleep) and use attack 2 (enmity+) then my 3rd attack (enmity+) is back on 1. First attack on 1, 2nd attack on mark 3 then back to 1. So far it works fine :3 Just don't forget to flash from time to time.

Though I will say I can't stand DDs who go all out and don't pay attention to that hate bar in the party list grrrr just because your level 50 with fairly good gear doesn't mean you know how to play >< DDs need to learn how to hold back their damage, its about teamwork not who can dish out the most damage

Copperbell mines was the place for me though. I went there and it was a complete disaster, we ended up running out of time. I felt like such a failure. Went back to Deepcroft (which I happen to love) and ran it over and over again until I finally started getting a feel for tank. By the time I went back to Copperbell Mines I ended up completely destroying that place.

Brayflox was another place I spent like 2 weeks running it over and over, another one of my favorites. The cavalry set that drops there is really good, I wore that set up to af actually XD yes there was a heavy armor set in-between those 2 but because i kept running brayflox I was like level 40 or so before I finally managed to gather the complete set.

[CrisGer]

I won't go back and read all of the posts for I see the usual blend of nice posts and not so nice ones from people telling us we are dumb players or that we can't call a dungeon done until we have gone back and grabbed every single piece of gear there is. sigh.

Brayflox is way over levelled with the final boss being basically unbeatable unless you are way over levelled in gear experience and manage to get that monster lizard off the green goo. It is NOT balanced as some of the class quests are way out of balance as well. I suspected sooner or later we would run into this for most developers seem addicted to hitting players who are "normal" with huge boss inbalance to force them to team up and make it impossible to advance without becoming super games to support their titles.

I am sorry but you will have to find a nice team that will support you and hopefully at least an experienced healer who for sure has Esuna to shut down the poison breath of the dragon otherwise you wont advance.

[VisRalis]

^not sure if troll... or gave up to fast and never really 'tried'...

SCH can heal through Brayflox fine.
Coordinated tactics can get through first boss & adds.
For Aiatar's spits of poison pool, work your way inside from entrance (saves space better at the end).
Poison pools near entrance also disappear faster.
Dodging Aiatar's poison breath has a strategy that is easy to employ - instead of standing still move left & right every action. Every time poison breath comes, you'll be at the edge of the AOE or already moving to either edge making it easier to be out of it. Pro-active instead of reactive.

Among many strategies good for Brayflox...

[Slade6]

Full hq gear, all stat points in vit, mark targets, tomahawk, overpower, flash flash, and provoke for emergencies, that simple. Oh and dont forget not to stand in any red circles or cones.